norman@d.cs.okstate.edu (Norman Graham) (06/28/91)
Somewhere along the way, I decided initialisms and acronyms should be set
in small caps when they appear in body copy. This breaks down when I need
to form the plural of an initialism or when an acronym has both capitals
and minuscules: The minuscules either become indistinguishable from the
small capitals or the mixing of small capitals and minuscules just looks
bizarre. For example, the plural of the initialism ADT looks like ADTS
instead of ADTs. For plural initialisms, my solution is to set the trailing
s at a smaller size; this is somewhat satisfactory.
My question is this: Should I be setting initialisms and acronyms in small
capitals at all? Both problems go away if I use full size capitals, but
this introduces a new problem: Initialisms and acronyms set in full size
capitals are somewhat jarring in a line of body text. This is a problem
in computer science papers where initialisms and acronyms abound.
I consulted my style manuals, but the only rule I could find is to set
AM and PM in small capitals without periods.
Let me hear what the net has to say on this. I'll post a summary of
the responses.
Yours,
Norm
--
Norman Graham
<norman@a.cs.okstate.edu> Standard Disclaimer Applies
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